Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 18:21:53 +0200 (MSZ)
From: Bj|rn Skolander
MP Andreas Carlgren's public coming out in a TV programme yesterday has mad=
e
him to hot stuff in the Swedish press today.
In EXPRESSEN a photo of Carlgren is covering two mid-section-pages with the
text "A man emerges from his shadow". The photo is followed by a one page
interview with Carlgren.
AFTONBLADET also has a one page interview, including the Martin Neimoeller
quotation "First they came for the communists...", which is described as on=
e
of Carlgren's favourite quotations.
Also Dagens Nyheter (DN) has an interview with Carlgren. Below follows a fe=
w
of the central parts of these interviews.
From=20DN:
********
- As a politician I want something with society. I want to safeguard
tolerance, which is a threatened value. It ought to be natural with a gay
politician, but that is not the case at present.
Carlgren has been out to his party colleagues for a while, and the way they
respond to his openness tells something about how tolerant Sweden is, he
says.
From=20EXPRESSEN:
***************
- The word gay expresses pride and dignity. Someone talked of my "sexual
orientation" which makes it sound like a deficiency. I just have a way of
loving persons which the majority of guys does not have.
Question: You are pro gay men's and lesbian's rights to adoption. Is it
right to expose children to the experiment of having two male parents?
- (Carlgren is openly disturbed by the question) No one has the right to
question my way of being responsible as a gay parent!
Question: You could be a possible future minister of foreign affairs? There
are countries in the surrounding world, where homosexuality is a total
taboo?
- Every minister who travels abroad is a representative of his/hers
country's culture. Then I could show, that we in Sweden have the right to b=
e
ourselves.
Question: How do you cope with a situation when a person acts uneasy or
directly contemptuous because you are a fag (the journalist uses the Swedis=
h
word "boeg" which is similar to the English term "fag". An English or
American journalist might have used the word "gay" instead)?
- I have thought about that and am prepaired. If I show fear it will create
intolerance. If I am not afraid I will gain respect.
From=20AFTONBLADET:
*****************
Question: Do you want to be a prominent activist in the gay and lesbian
movement?
- No. My contribution to it will be to speak openly.
Translated and distributed by Bjorn Skolander